BRASILIA (AFP)
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro underwent a medical procedure on Saturday to treat recurrent hiccups he has been dealing with for months, according to his medical team.
The 70-year-old ex-president, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence, had been released from prison on Wednesday to undergo surgery for a groin hernia at the DF Star Hospital in Brasilia.
That surgery was performed on Thursday without incident, and Bolsonaro remained hospitalised for several days for evaluation.
During that time, Bolsonaro's medical team determined it was necessary to perform an anesthetic block of the phrenic nerve -- which controls the diaphragm -- to treat his recurring hiccups.
Bolsonaro's doctor, Claudio Birolini, told reporters on Thursday that the procedure involved locating the nerve using an ultrasound machine and then injecting it with a local analgesic.
The procedure on Saturday "went well," according to another of the doctors, Mateus Saldanha.
Birolini said the process took about an hour, adding that "it's not surgery...it does not involve any incisions."
The right side of the nerve was treated Saturday, and a procedure to treat the left side of the nerve is set for Monday.
'Months of struggle'
"My love just went to the surgical center to have his phrenic nerve blocked," former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday.
"It's been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups," she added.
The far-right former president, who was in power from 2019 to 2022, has for years been dealing with the aftermath of an abdominal stab wound he suffered during a 2018 campaign rally, requiring several major surgeries.
Once discharged from the hospital, Bolsonaro will return to serving his sentence at a federal police jail in the capital.